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The Little Girl Who Was Too Fond of Matches:…
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The Little Girl Who Was Too Fond of Matches: A Novel (original 1998; edition 2011)

by Gaetan Soucy (Author)

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingMentions
3992062,975 (3.79)59
A truly remarkable tour de force, both as a novel and as a translation by Sheila Fischman The story is told by a child who has been brought up in a cabin by a deranged father in the Canadian wilds. The child has simply never met anyone from outside the little family, and speaks an extraordinary language based on the father's limited conversation and a motley selection of books in the cabin. The story opens on the day the two siblings discover that their father has hanged himself. Now they will be forced into contact with the villagers beyond their little universe. They will discover the startling truth about the world outside -- and the world outside will discover the even more startling truth about them and their history. Hypnotic, powerful, playful, utterly suspenseful, this is an amazing novel that has been a major bestseller in Canada.… (more)
Member:lindsayhickman
Title:The Little Girl Who Was Too Fond of Matches: A Novel
Authors:Gaetan Soucy (Author)
Info:Arcade (2011), 156 pages
Collections:Ebooks, Your library
Rating:
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Work Information

The Little Girl Who Was Too Fond of Matches by Gaétan Soucy (1998)

  1. 00
    When We Were Romans by Matthew Kneale (LynnB)
    LynnB: Not as dark, but also written from the perspective of a child who doesn't understand what is really happening in his family.
  2. 00
    The Notebook by Ágota Kristóf (Cecilturtle)
  3. 00
    The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks (hubies)
  4. 00
    Nell by Mary Ann Evans (Litrvixen)
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» See also 59 mentions

English (15)  French (2)  Spanish (1)  Dutch (1)  Italian (1)  All languages (20)
Showing 1-5 of 15 (next | show all)
... What?

No, not as good as the reviews will have you believe.
  brutalstirfry | May 6, 2022 |
A story that will send chills down your spine. I remember thinking, what kind of person could have come up with a story like this?!
A good friend of mine actually had the author as a philosophy professor and he was apparently quite boring. Not at all what I would have expected. ( )
  lacurieuse | Nov 11, 2021 |
The Little Girl Who Was Too Fond of Matches is a novel by Canadian writer Gaetan Soucy.

The story begins with two siblings living on a large estate alone with their father. When the father dies suddenly, the children know they have to take care of the burial, which means leaving the estate, which they've never done, and travelling to the nearby village.

The siblings are teenagers, which takes a moment for the reader to discover, as their language, behavior, and lack of knowledge of the outside world leads one to think that they're small children. The older sibling has a skewed view of reality, believing that fictional places, as well as far away nations like Japan, lie just beyond the grove of trees surrounding the estate. It's obvious that their father has kept them developmentally and emotionally stunted, but to what purpose?

Slowly, the truth comes to light, and the circumstances of the children's lives on the estate is revealed. The language of the book comes from the mind of the older sibling, which at times is convoluted or confused. I can understand why this might be distracting, but this character's interpretation of the world only enhances the ominous atmosphere.

This story is grotesque and twisted, and many of the scenes are disturbing. I wouldn't recommend this book to everyone, but would suggest this book for those who like challenging language, puzzling characters, and aren't bothered by unsettling or gruesome descriptions. If you have ever read The Wasp Factory and survived, then you'll be okay.

Translated from the French, the book is only about 150 pages, so it's a quick read, and there is no time wasted and no piece of the plot that isn't crucial. I recommend you read it in one sitting . . . if you can handle it. ( )
  ErickaS | May 2, 2018 |
Quel improbable livre. Son histoire, sa narration, ses personnages. C'est cru, violent, improbable (quoique...). L'histoire se dévoile lentement, inexorablement, on pense que nooon? Hé ben si. Et vlan je t'en rajoute même une louche pour faire bonne mesure.
Je ne sais si j'aime ou pas, ça penche plutôt vers le j'aime, a priori. J'ai en tout cas bien bien accroché à l'écriture, comme venue un peu de nulle part, au vocabulaire improbable, toujours un peu bancal, à la limite du contre-sens et du n'importe quoi, j'adore! ( )
1 vote elisala | Feb 16, 2018 |
A literary VC Andrews. Two siblings live a sheltered life with a domineering father on a deteriorating estate, their ways of being influenced by medieval stories and myths. When the father hangs himself, the kids are forced to confront the reality of the world outside the estate, a world not at all in sync with the dark reality of their own family.
  Salsabrarian | Feb 2, 2016 |
Showing 1-5 of 15 (next | show all)
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» Add other authors (6 possible)

Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
Gaétan Soucyprimary authorall editionscalculated
Fischman, SheilaTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
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Epigraph
The experience of feeling pain is not that a person 'I' has something. I distinguish an intensity, a location, etc. in the pain, but not an answer. What sort of a thing would a pain be that no one has? Pain belonging to no one at all? Pain is represented as something we can perceive in the sense in which we perceive a matchbox. - LUDWIG WITTGENSTEIN
Dedication
For Isabelle
First words
We had to take the universe in hand, my brother and I, for one morning just before dawn papa gave up the ghost without a by-your-leave.
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(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)
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A truly remarkable tour de force, both as a novel and as a translation by Sheila Fischman The story is told by a child who has been brought up in a cabin by a deranged father in the Canadian wilds. The child has simply never met anyone from outside the little family, and speaks an extraordinary language based on the father's limited conversation and a motley selection of books in the cabin. The story opens on the day the two siblings discover that their father has hanged himself. Now they will be forced into contact with the villagers beyond their little universe. They will discover the startling truth about the world outside -- and the world outside will discover the even more startling truth about them and their history. Hypnotic, powerful, playful, utterly suspenseful, this is an amazing novel that has been a major bestseller in Canada.

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